The Works of Lord Byron Volume II Part 14

[76] {57} ["A short two-edged knife or dagger ... formerly worn at the girdle" (_N. Eng. Dict._, art. "Anlace"). The "anlace" of the Spanish heroines was the national weapon, the _punal_, or _cuchillo_, which was sometimes stuck in the sash (_Handbook for Spain_, ii. 803).]

[77] [Compare _Macbeth_, act v. sc. 5, line 10--

"The Time has been, my senses would have cooled To hear a night-shriek."]

[cr]

-----_the column-scattering bolt afar,_ _The falchion's flash_--[MS. erased, D.]

[cs] {59} _The seal Love's rosy finger has imprest_ _On her fair chin denotes how soft his touch:_ _Her lips where kisses make voluptuous nest_.--[MS. erased.]

[78] [Writing to his mother (August 11, 1809), Byron compares "the Spanish style" of beauty to the disadvantage of the English: "Long black hair, dark languis.h.i.+ng eyes, _clear_ olive complexions, and forms more graceful in motion than can be conceived by an Englishman ... render a Spanish beauty irresistible" (_Letters_, 1898, i. 239). Compare, too, the opening lines of _The Girl of Cadiz_, which gave place to the stanzas _To Inez_, at the close of this canto--

"Oh never talk again to me Of northern climes and British ladies."

But in _Don Juan_, Canto XII. stanzas lxxiv.-lxxvii., he makes the _amende_ to the fair Briton--

"She cannot step as doth an Arab barb, Or Andalusian girl from ma.s.s returning.

But though the soil may give you time and trouble, Well cultivated, it will render double."]

[ct] {60}

_Beauties that need not fear a broken vow_.--[MS. erased.]

----_a lecher's vow_.--[MS.]

[79] [The summit of Parna.s.sus is not visible from Delphi or the neighbourhood. Before he composed "these stanzas" (December 16), (see note 13.B.) at the foot of Parna.s.sus, Byron had first surveyed its "snow-clad" majesty as he sailed towards Vostizza (on the southern sh.o.r.e of the Gulf of Corinth), which he reached on the 5th, and quitted on the 14th of December. "The Echoes" (line 8) which were celebrated by the ancients (Justin, _Hist._, lib. xxiv. cap. 6), are those made by the Phaedriades, or "gleaming peaks," a "lofty precipitous escarpment of red and grey limestone" at the head of the valley of the Pleistus, facing southwards.--_Travels in Albania_, i. 188, 199; _Geography of Greece_, by H. F. Tozer, 1873, p. 230.]

[cu] _Not in the landscape of a fabled lay_.--[MS. D.]

[80] {61} ["Upon Parna.s.sus, going to the fountain of Delphi (Castri) in 1809, I saw a flight of twelve eagles (Hobhouse said they were vultures--at least in conversation), and I seized the omen. On the day before, I composed the lines to Parna.s.sus [in _Childe Harold_] and, on beholding the birds, had a hope that Apollo had accepted my homage. I have, at least, had the name and fame of a poet during the poetical period of life (from twenty to thirty). Whether it will last is another matter; but I have been a votary of the deity and the place, and am grateful for what he has done in my behalf, leaving the future in his hands, as I left the past" (B. _Diary_, 1821).]

[cv] {62} _And walks with gla.s.sy steps o'er Aganippe's wave_.--[MS.

erased.]

[cw]

_Let me some remnant of thy Spirit bear_ _Some glorious thought to my pet.i.tion grant_.--[MS. erased, D.]

[81] ["Parna.s.sus ... is distinguished from all other Greek mountains by its mighty ma.s.s. This, with its vast b.u.t.tresses, almost fills up the rest of the country" (_Geography of Greece_, by H.F. Tozer, 1873, p.

226).]

[82] {63} [In his first letter from Spain (to F. Hodgson, August 6, 1809) Byron exclaims, "Cadiz, sweet Cadiz!--it is the first spot in the creation ... Cadiz is a complete Cythera." See, too, letter to Mrs.

Byron, August 11, 1809 (Letters, 1898, i. 234, 239).]

[cx]

_While boyish blood boils gaily, who can 'scape_ _The lurking lures of thy enchanting gaze_.--[MS. erased.]

[83] {64} [It must not be supposed that the "thousand altars" of Cadiz correspond with and are in contrast to the "one dome" of Paphos. The point is that where Venus fixes her shrine, at Paphos or at Cadiz, altars blaze and wors.h.i.+ppers abound (compare _aeneid_, i. 415-417)--

"Ipsa Paphum sublimis abit, sedesque revisit Laeta suas, ubi templum illi, centumque Sabaeo Ture calent arae."]

[84] [Compare Milton's _Paradise Lost_, i.--

... from morn To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve.]

[85] [It was seldom that Byron's memory played him false, but here a vague recollection of a Shakespearian phrase has beguiled him into a blunder. He is thinking of Hamlet's jibe on the corruption of manners, "The age is grown so picked that the toe of the peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier, he galls his kibe" (act v. sc. 1, line 150), and he forgets that a kibe is not a heel or a part of a heel, but a chilblain.]

[cy]

----_though in lieu_ _Of true devotion monkish temples share_ _The hours misspent, and all in turns is Love or Prayer_.---- [_MS. erased_.]

[cz] ----_or rule the hour in turns_.----[D.]

[86] {65} [As he intimates in the Preface to _Childe Harold_, Byron had originally intended to introduce "variations" in his poem of a droll or satirical character. Beattie, Thomson, Ariosto, were sufficient authorities for these humorous episodes. The stanzas on the Convention of Cintra (stanzas xxv.-xxviii. of the MS.), and the four stanzas on Sir John Carr; the concluding stanzas of the MS., which were written in this lighter vein, were suppressed at the instance of Dallas, or Murray, or Gifford. From a pa.s.sage in a letter to Dallas (August 21, 1811), it appears that Byron had almost made up his mind to leave out "the two stanzas of a buffooning cast on London's Sunday" (_Letters_, 1898, i.

335). But, possibly, owing to their freedom from any compromising personalities, or because wiser counsels prevailed, they were allowed to stand, and continued (wrote Moore in 1832) to "disfigure the poem."]

[87] [A whiskey is a light carriage in which the traveller is _whisked_ along.]

[da] {66} _And humbler gig_----.--[MS.]

[db] _And droughty man alights and roars for "Roman Purl."_[-]--[MS. D.]

[-] A festive liquor so called. Query why "Roman"? [Query if "Roman"?

"'Purl Royal,' Canary wine with a dash of the tincture of wormwood"

(Grose's _Cla.s.s. Dict._).]

----_for Punch or Purl_.--[D.]

[dc] _Some o'er thy Thames convoy_----.--[MS. D.]

[88] [Hone's _Everyday Book_ (1827, ii. 80-87) gives a detailed account of the custom of "swearing on the horns" at Highgate. "The horns, fixed on a pole of about five feet in length, were erected by placing the pole upright on the ground near the person to be sworn, who is requested to take off his hat," etc. The oath, or rather a small part of it, ran as follows: "Take notice what I am saying unto you, for _that_ is the first word of your oath--mind _that_! You must acknowledge me [the landlord]

to be your adopted father, etc.... You must not eat brown bread while you can get white, except you like the brown best. You must not drink small beer while you can get strong, except you like the small best. You must not kiss the maid while you can kiss the mistress, but sooner than lose a good chance you may kiss them both," etc. Drovers, who frequented the "Gate House" at the top of the hill, and who wished to keep the tavern to themselves, are said to have been responsible for the rude beginnings of this tedious foolery.]

[89] {67} [M. Darmesteter quotes a striking pa.s.sage from Gautier's _Voyage en Espagne_ (xv.), in appreciation of Cadiz and Byron: "L'aspect de Cadix, en venant du large, est charmant. A la voir ainsi etincelante de blancheur entre l'azur de la mer et l'azur du ciel, on dirait une immense couronne de filigrane d'argent; le dome de la cathedrale, peint en jaune, semble une tiare de vermeil posee au milieu. Les pots de fleurs, les volutes et les tourelles qui terminent les maisons, varient a l'infini la dentelure. Byron a merveilleus.e.m.e.nt caracterise la physionomie de Cadix en une seule touche:

"Brillante Cadix, qui t'eleves vers le ciel du milieu du bleu fonce de la mer."]

[90] [The actors in a bull-fight consist of three or four cla.s.ses: the _chulos_ or footmen, the _banderilleros_ or dart-throwers, the _picadores_ or hors.e.m.e.n, the _matadores_ or _espadas_ the executioners.

Each bull-fight, which lasts about twenty minutes, is divided into three stages or acts. In the first act the _picadores_ receive the charge of the bull, defending themselves, but not, as a rule, attacking the foe with their lances or _garrochas_. In the second act the _chulos_, who are not mounted, wave coloured cloaks or handkerchiefs in the bull's face, and endeavour to divert his fury from the _picadores_, in case they have been thrown or worsted in the encounter. At the same time, the _banderilleros_ are at pains to implant in either side of the bull's neck a number of barbed darts ornamented with cut paper, and, sometimes, charged with detonating powder. It is _de rigeur_ to plant the barbs exactly on either side. In the third and final act, the protagonist, the _matador_ or _espada_, is the sole performer. His function is to entice the bull towards him by waving the _muleta_ or red flag, and, standing in front of the animal, to inflict the death-wound by plunging his sword between the left shoulder and the blade. "The teams of mules now enter, glittering with flags and tinkling with bells, whose gay decorations contrast with the stern cruelty and blood; the dead bull is carried off at a rapid gallop, which always delights the populace."--_Handbook for Spain_, by Richard Ford, 1898, i. 67-76.]

[91] {70} "The croupe is a particular leap taught in the manege."--[MS.]

[_Croupe_, or _croup_, denotes the hind quarters of a horse. Compare Scott's ballad of "Young Lochinvar"--"So light to the croupe the fair lady he swung." Here it is used for "croupade," "a high curvet in which the hind legs are brought up under the belly of the horse" (_N. Eng.

Dict._, art. "Croupade.")]

[92] {71} ["Brast" for "burst" is found in Spenser (_Faerie Queene_, i.

9. 21. 7), and is still current in Lancas.h.i.+re dialect. See _Lanc.

Gloss._ (E. D. S. "brast").]